Healing Gardens

This weeks readings, being with journal entries, and reflection workshop questions have brought me to focus on what’s important in life; getting outside and being with nature, stepping away from my busy life to enjoy and document the world around me. I need to pay attention to the complex system I operate in and know the consequences of my actions. I recognized my cultures beliefs on nature, agriculture, and gardening and then realized how backwards the majority of us are by hearing how this lands real ancestors lived. The earths blanket theory of the native peoples is one of the best metaphors I’ve heard to promote sustainability in young and old generations alike. I feel there is a purpose for everything on earth no matter how simple, limited, or chaotic. I want to be like the people I read about; doing good, living with the earth without hearting it. I like to help and provide for people, this has been one of my long time attributes, Gardening for food, medicine and recreation is a way to live sustainable and do good for others in the process. I really hope this class gets me closer to earning my “greener” thumb.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 Reflection #2 Week 3

This weeks Garden topic is types of gardens. The first gardens that came to mind were culinary, medicinal, crop, mushroom, flower, and fruit gardens. Class discussion brought up zen gardens, mazes, and even Christmas tree farms. Gardens seem to always have a humans purpose, but not all gardens are made by people. In workshop Tracy and I both agreed that our favorite garden is a diverse garden that thrives on its own naturally. A garden full of life; plant, animal, insect, human, fungi. A forest garden. I am really enjoying nature journaling. It has become an excuse to leave my busy life and get out in the woods. I visited a new park, Burfoot, and explored for hours. Plants are becoming more familiar to me, I love it.

Growing up on the Columbia River in Cowlitz County, one of the most polluted counties in the NW, I was not accustomed to seeing much natural, unaffected, diverse land around Longview. Yes we have forest but overgrown with invasive and very young growth thanks to local Weyerhaeuser. Moving up to the sound and exploring the area has been jaw dropping. There are so many distinct habitats and a variety of flora and fungi. I was so happy we decided to tread up to Island Wood, one of the most beautiful examples of a garden I have ever explored. This place had so many sites to teach human connections and interactions with nature. I am glad that I can always look back at the pictures from the trip and recall the feeling of being there at that special place that is doing so much. I wish we had more time there for journaling. Someday maybe I will go back and spend a semester there. I am going to start taking more pictures as a form of journaling. I have been getting some creative ideas for entries after reading Nature Journaling Ch. 4 “The On-going Journal” and Ch. 5 “The Autumn Journal”. I am a horrible artist though, I’m very impatient and don’t pay much attention to details. I’ll be getting a lot more practice though in this class. Everyone is so creative; there are a lot of really good artists.

Healing Gardens, the name alone stress’s gardening for medicine. In class I made my very first plant medicine, and now I feel empowered to make more. I am quick to suggest plants for a friend’s problem. It is quite the experience to harvest, dry, and finally concoct your own natural medicine. I really like to help people and I really hate mainstream medicine, so Gardening can be a form of activism as well. The readings from Fields That Dream Ch. 9 "Second Chances," and Ch. 10 "The Back Forty...Inches" both have good examples of why people garden. In Ch. 9 the Seattle Youth Garden Works brings the lessons of gardening and education of sustainability to urban troubled homeless youth. In Ch. 10 Sunflower Farm is providing healthy alternative food sources to youth. Fighting the obesity problem in America. The Earth's Blanket Ch. 6 "Looking After the Lands and Waters"  teaches us that native peoples took care of there land, they gardened everything for thousands of years, burning the prairies, mountainsides, they had specific techniques for pruning and cutting back shrubs, and digging/tilling roots, keeping soil nutrient rich. They practiced sustainable harvesting, never taking to much. These peoples took pride in their land; they were connected to the place and felt responsible to take care of it. I have been helping out at the forestry’s demonstration Prairie garden as part of my community garden project with the Nature Conservancy.  One of the rarest ecosystems in the country, open prairies were created by retreating glaciers 15,000 years ago, which left behind gravelly soils that dried out quickly during summer droughts. Native Americans sustained these grassy plains for thousands of years, using fire to keep the encroaching forests at bay so that tribes could harvest the prairies’ bounty of wildflowers and bulbs. Two centuries ago, prairies and oak woodlands covered much of the South Sound. Today, only 3 percent of our native prairies remain. The Nature Conservancy and others are trying to see that the flora, animus, and insects of this habitat stick around. These are the Garden soldiers, the nature protectors, the earth doctors; they work the land for the land. I couldn’t look up to the volunteers more. Our lands ancestors would be proud.

Reflection #1

The readings this week gave descriptions of the NW eco-systems. They include “Keeping it Living” edited by Douglas Deur and Nancy Turner and “The Natural History of Puget Sound Country“ Ch. 5. In “Keeping it Living” they break down the NW into 4 zones based mostly on elevation and forest types. These include The Coastal Douglas-fir zone (Puget sound, Willamette Valley, and Vancouver island areas), The Coastal Western-Hemlock zone(along coast, mid-elevations), The Mountain Hemlock zone(mid to high elevations where there is snow), and lastly The Alpine Tundra Biogeoclimatic zone where it snows year round and no trees can grow. “The Natural History Of Puget Sound Country” went into quite a bit more detail on the lowland forest, Puget sound, and specifically the Western Hemlock zone described in the latter. There were charts and pages of details on trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, herbs, moss, lichens, and right down to the fungi commonly found in the area.

“Keeping it Living” on page 10 describes that, “human settlement and land tenure on the north west coast reflected the regional biogeography” They had permanent winter shelters but also “frequented a wide range of specialized habitats in all biogeoclimatic zones.” Culturally land was divided by tribes and they used all resources wisely. There culture was as diverse as the land they lived by.

While doing the reading this week I came across more plants than I thought I could recognize. “The Natural History of Puget Sound Country” especially because it had so many wonderful pictures of the things I grew up around in the Willamette valley that I‘m ashamed to say never had a name for. In the “Sweet Breathing of Plants” the piece on the language of flowers also surprised me, I could easily put a face to more flowers names than to plants in my area or even trees . Roses, pansies, sunflowers, daisies, Poppy’s , Geraniums, Lillie/Orchids, Violets, Forget-me-nots. After last quarter some of the plants brought up in “Keeping it Living” I could recognize such as Tobacco, Stinging Nettle, Salal, Cattails, Blue Camas, and Epiphytes.

Some ideas that came to mind that I could apply to the Long-House Garden while doing this weeks readings include the use of mulch for preventing weeds on the plants we transplant next week described in the “Sweet Breathing” poem Mulch, and also ,when in “Keeping it Living” they mention that there are 300 known plants traditionally used by first peoples, I thought of signage. How cool would it be to create a database, or maybe a map of where to find those certain plants on the list. Then there could be signs near groups of plants with more information. Last Saturday’s class also gave me the idea to inoculate further areas of the forest, damaged by the storm and otherwise. I can’t wait for the weather to change so I can again see this areas diversity and take action on the Long House Garden.

Reflection #2

The readings this week that went into detail on NW eco-systems include “Keeping it Living” edited by Douglas Deur and Nancy Turner and “The Natural History of Puget Sound Country“ Ch. 5. In “Keeping it Living” they explain over and again that the land although thought to be naturally high in bounty was actually cultivated in how the indigenous people culturally viewed, respected and lived with nature. The cultural system followed the natural system of seasons and as the salmon moved so did the people who culturally followed their food source. “The Natural History Of Puget Sound Country” went into quite a bit more detail on the lowland forest, Puget sound, and specifically the Western Hemlock zone. Reading the two selections made me realize how I can be a healer by working with the land as the native culture did. I can prune, weed, transplant, and selectively harvest when the time arises to become a healer of not only mother earth but also my fellow beings.

While doing the reading this week I came across more plants that I can identify especially in “The Herbalist Way”. To name a few; Echinacea, Oregon grape, Valerian, Stinging nettle, Garlic, Comfrey, Catnip, Peppermint, chamomile, St. John’s Wort, Goldenseal, and cattails. In “The Sweet Breathing of Plants” Jeanne Achterberg details what she found to be in the old wise-women’s brews and a few of those plants I recognized for their hallucinogenic properties these include hen-bane, hemlock, mandrake, moonshade tabacco, opium, saffron, and poplar leaves(p.112).

Some ideas that came to mind that I could apply to the Long-House Garden this week is removing sod and adding sand/soil mix. Planting donated plants and getting a move on natural upkeep. Signage with medicinal uses for herbalists was also an idea.

Reflection #3

Taking a break from reality and shifting consciousness I see the sweet breathing of plants. The first white bloom of the indoor amaryllis moves, and sways slightly morphing before me in the dim moonlight. Outside the tree line, reddish green on a wistful gray-blue horizon, dances alive. It is cold windy and everything sparkles with frost. I focus on a small area the size of a shoe box, frozen I see movement, this small area is teaming with life, vines seem to be twisting up, bugs climbing on them, worms of sorts working the ground. I can see myself. Tickling fescue and placing their roots in the prepared soil, brushing the sledge out of Kinickinicks hair, working the ground and making friends.

This first half of the quarter has deepened my connection with nature. At times I can be completely devoted and others devoid. I am recognizing an expansion in my plant memory bank. Trees, flowers, herbs, and bushes. I am becoming more familiar with the Native Prairie culture and species. I actually have played herbalist at work. Suggesting plants for migraines, Ginkgo, Jamaican Dogwood, and explaining what and how to use it, also bringing in tinctures of Hops for my insomnia suffering coworkers. It felt so fulfilling to hear that it works. Identifying winter twigs came surprisingly easy. It took me awhile to actually figure out the terminology, but I was still able to narrow it down to the right plant. During the Identity workshop I felt myself really connect and open up, especially in seminar. I think it is easy for us to lose touch of who we are, when we are constantly go-go-go. I look forward to slowing down for the rest of winter.

Reflection #4

Winter is manifested outside and conceptually inside my self. The ground is muddy and also hard at times. I can be frozen, strong, firm but also I can slip, leave behind tracks, fall into the cracks. Like the willow I to rest in winter. I’m not in a hurry, I wait for the time to come and enjoy getting there (“Sweet Breathing” P. 60). Like the plants and fungi I to have a seasonal growth pattern, and my resources are used in short spurts between much rest. I am most productive at certain times, and I like to think that my perpetual procrastination is only natural.(“Keeping it Living” Ch. 4, P. 112-113).

My relationship with my Journal is not as fulfilling as I had hoped. I still am slacking on keeping it up like last quarter, waiting till the last second. I am improving and picking up good ideas from Nature Journaling though. The twig ID has been quite the task it takes me a long time and it never seems just right. I recently realized after reading that it is ok to take pictures of a plant to draw later along with memory of being with. I have put this to practice, capturing Oregon grape, wild ginger, salal, prince’s pine, big leaf maples, and patches of bear grass on a trip to the national forest in skok valley. I feel less rush, and this allows me to escape and draw at night too.

Reflection #5

Summary: Keeping it Living ch. 4 “Solving The Perennial Paradox: Ethnobotanical Evidence for Plant Resource Management on The Northwest Coast” by Nancy J. Turner and Sandra Peacock

People-plant Interactions on the northwest coast are now well documented. The native peoples of our area had Plant management principles and practices that greatly effected their environment. Over 300 plant species were utilized traditionally by northwest coast peoples as food, sources of material, medicines and for spiritual purposes. Some of the horticultural strategies used were selective harvesting and replanting, digging and tilling, tending and weeding, sowing and transplanting, pruning and coppicing, and landscape burning.

Tobacco Cultivation was done in garden plots marked by stakes, poles, or large rock borders. This is just one of many known garden plants documented as being selected for private growing plots. Indigenous concepts on ownership of plant resources is also well documented in many of the Anthropogenic landscapes such as low elevation meadows, rain shadow Douglas fir forests, coastal rainforest, montane forest, freshwater marshes and swamps, riverbanks, and lakeshores, freshwater bogs and fens, tidel wetlands, and human habitation sites, all created in part due to native social contexts for plant management like scheduling life and interactions with the land by season, perennially and ceremonial recognition of resources.Open Discussion: This chapter was very revealing of the collective plant-human interactions, connections, and results of native land management. The various tables seemed to summarize the chapter well. I found it very easy to see the connections between the various plants, uses, native management techniques, and cultural infusion with the landscapes using the tables. The reading itself had good first hand excerpts from elders, specific examples with plants, descriptions of environmental zones and the resource management involved. The chapter was long and very repetitive, but easy to summarize. Nobody after reading this chapter could assume again that the landscape of the pacific northwest is naturally abundant and that Indigenous people were only mere hunter-gatherers. I see now as historian Daisy Sewidsmith, it is the.. “Same thing a farmer does” P. 149LHG connections: We read in chapter 4 that red elderberry occurs in wet areas. In the LHG prairie site we had planed to plant a red elderberry but now that we have augmented the soil with sand and gravel for better drainage, I’m not sure if a red elderberry will grow successfully. Chapter 4 mentions how that when scheduling the harvest of plants around this time of the year natives would gather up the materials needed to make things like digging sticks, tools, mats , and baskets. Winter, a time of rest seemed also to be the time of year when these chores were completed in the comfort of the long house. Maybe we should be making things in the long house like digging sticks, baskets, and maybe other native material workshops in the future winters. In the reading on page 140 Nancy talks about Low elevation meadows which directly relates to the LHG prairie sites. She talks about how the blue camas beds where burned over, weeded, cleared, selectively harvested and intentionally seeded and sown by individual members or familys. Individual species that correlate with camas prairies include ; Chocolate Lilly , Hooker"s onion , false onion, Braken Fern, and Tiger Lilly. Maybe we should get some of theses plants and start burning next year. Evidence suggests burnings seemed to occur in almost all other environmental zones as well.

Reflection #6-free write hard copy in folder only copy as of now

Reflection #7

So far this winter quarter I have been flooded with more ideas than I know what to do with. My other class, Eco-heroes, has provided me with a steady input of examples of creative engineering for an environmentally conscious future. The last Book we read was Gaviotas. It is about a functioning utopia in the midst of a vast barren savannah in violence ridden Columbia. In Gaviotas they grow food with homemade hydroponic systems and the trees that they can plant in soil are inoculated to extend mineral reaches of the roots. Amazingly, down there they’re creating lost rainforests. When asked to plan my own garden for class I too had a problem with lack of resources. I’m a nomadic student, moving every 6^th month and enjoying the freedom. A hydroponic system seemed like a fantastic idea but as I researched more and more and visited the local hydroponics gardening shop, I realized how expensive hydroponics can be. I resorted back to the original idea of a portable mushroom garden. Researching different species and growing qualifications like growing media, light, and temp, I was called again in a different direction. The Lions main mushroom which grows best on hardwoods like oak, outside called me. It has specific medicinal properties that have shown to restore nerve damage. The indoor kits are 25 dollars and would produce within weeks if I order from fungi perfecti. My friend Lorn has already orderd cultures for spawning grain, then plugs, for inoculating stumps. This process would take a lot longer. I have decided to do both for experience. Indoor for practical reasons, and outdoor so I can enjoy them for longer and learn more about the mycelium growth process.

Reflection #8

My personal presentation incorporates my identity with the meanings I made this quarter and my personal garden planning. I will start off with a story, one of the first that popped into my head at the identity workshop a few weeks ago. When I was in 6th grade We went to an outdoor school called Cispus. Before we left we had to pick out a new nature name, I coinsidently chose Fungus. I still have my necklace made of wood and a fish print shirt with Fungus printed on them. I plan on wearing both. The next part of my presentation is still up in the air. If I can get the resources together I would like to make medicinal mushroom postcards like the plant ones Marja brought in to show from India. I plan to have a powerpoint if i don't, that includes pictures, and medicinal uses of local mushrooms like turkey tail, oysters, chicken of the woods, chantrelles, shaggy manes, and my newest interest due to nerve growth properties, the mystical Lion's mane mushroom. I have planned for my personal garden after much consisderation a portable lions mane mushroom garden. I can see myself selling homemade tinctures out of the back of my van smeday.

Reflection #9

After a long busy day of work I look forward to coming home, putting on a pot of tea and curling up on the couch. Kim and I discuss our days over tea and cigarettes. Picking up the book The Sweet Breathing of Plants I'd clear my throat, "bare with me". As I read aloud I relaxed and the words flowed freely.
I took on the voice of so many diverse women, all connected with plants on a level I aspire to reach. They taught me more than any other book about the true nature of plants and their history with women.(p.103 and p.124) I felt connected through their descriptive ways to the plants they loved, or in some cases hate. In the beginning I read about flowers, orchids and roses especially. (P. 3-26) I read of Huckleberries, Columbine, mint, Poetry on bamboo, corn, peyote(one of my favorites (P. 71), trees, alders, big leaf maples, grass, Radioactive tumbleweeds(P.191), and in the end the iris(P.276). I really enjoyed the poetry as well as the stories relating to native uses and ceremony.
There were times when I wanted to tell the authors "shut up!" and other times "Keep going", I wanted to ask them questions, get updates. I love books like these. There are so many voices out their that if presented correctly could greatly effect society and change. A good community should feed off each other, learn from each other, books like these help bridge gaps and extend a lost knowledge. I am fortunate to have the internet which allows me to further gain perspective and resources.